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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Samuel Shepherd "Sam" Caldwell | nationality=American | office=Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, United State..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Samuel Shepherd "Sam" Caldwell
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=[[Mayor]] of [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
| term_start=1934
| term_end=1946
| preceded=George W. Hardy, Jr.
| succeeded=[[Clyde Fant]]
| birth_date=November 4, 1892
| birth_place=Mooringsport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana
| death_date=August 14, 1953 (aged 60)
| death_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
| occupation=[[Oil]]man
| spouse= Anna Pauline Owen Caldwell (married 1914-1953, his death)
| children=Betty Ann Caldwell Morgan Burke
| religion=[[Presbyterian]]
| alma_mater=[[Louisiana Tech University]]}}
'''Samuel Shepherd Caldwell''', known as '''Sam Caldwell''' (November 4, 1892 – August 14, 1953), was an [[oil]]man who served from 1934 to 1946 as the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[mayor]] of [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]].
==Background==
The son of Samuel A. Caldwell and the former Alice Jeter, Caldwell was born and educated in Mooringsport in Caddo Parish.<ref name=polgr>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/caldwell.html|title=Index to Politicians: Caldwell|publisher=politicalgraveyard.com|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref> He then attended [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]]. For nine years he was employed by Kansas City Southern Railway in the accounting and auditing departments. He worked seven years for Shell Oil Company, part of that tenure as the assistant superintendent of the land department. He was thereafter an independent oil operator affiliated with the Louisiana-Arkansas division of the then Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association.<ref name=annacaldwell/>
==Political life==
From 1932 to 1934, Caldwell served on the Caddo Parish Commission, then known as the police jury, the parish governing body akin to [[county commission]]s in other states.<ref name=polgr/> He was elected to four-year terms as mayor in 1934, 1938, and 1942. In this capacity, he worked to merge the municipal and parish boards of health into one entity and oversaw the stocking of Cross Lake, the city's water supply.<ref name=lahist>{{cite web|url=https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-c/|title=Caldwell, Samuel S.|publisher=[ouisiana Historical Association: ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'' (lahistory.com)|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref><ref>Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, ''History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders'' (1937).</ref>
In the Caldwell administration, the city obtained the former United Service Organization]center in Princess Park, which later housed the Shreveport Regional Arts Council until it was destroyed by [[arson]]. Caldwell set the eight-hour day for city fire and police personnel and lobbied for frequent pay increases for these employees. He worked to obtain $2 million in funding for the city's first low-income housing and established public dental, prenatal, and maternity clinics without increasing taxes to do so. Caldwell was responsible for the municipal acquisition of Querbes Park and established Ford Park, named for former mayor and commissioner [[John McWilliams Ford]].<ref name=caldwelladm/>
When he declined to seek a fourth term in office, Caldwell said that he had "tried sincerely to be a good mayor. I will be just as interested and solicitous of the welfare of the city ... as a private citizen as I have been as mayor."<ref name=caldwelladm/>
===Gubernatorial race===
In 1944, Caldwell campaigned unsuccessfully for [[governor]] against former Shreveport Public Safety Commissioner (a position since abolished) [[Jimmie Davis]]. Caldwell's choice for lieutenant governor was state Senator [[Frank B. Ellis]] of St. Tammany Parish,<ref>''Minden Herald,'' January 14, 1944, p. 5.</ref> who a decade later waged an unsuccessful challenge to [[U.S. Senator]] [[Allen J. Ellender]]. Caldwell received just under thirty thousand votes in the gubernatorial primary. [[Leander Perez]], boss of the Louisiana Delta from Plaquemines Parish, endorsed for governor "either" Caldwell or Lewis Lovering Morgan (1876-1950) of Covington in St. Tammany Parish. At the time, Perez had a personal dislike for Davis and outgoing Governor [[Sam H. Jones]] of [[Lake Charles]], who covertly favored Davis. Morgan was the gubernatorial running mate of former Governor [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]], who was seeking the office of lieutenant governor that year. Others who sought the governorship in 1944 were colorful state Senator [[Dudley J. LeBlanc]] of Abbeville in Vermillion Parish and [[U.S. Representative]] [[James H. Morrison]] of Louisiana's 6th congressional district, a resident of Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish, names widely known across the state at that time. Davis led the balloting and then defeated Morgan in the runoff election.<ref name=perez>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FZgEl830BEcC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=sam+caldwell+and+jimmie+davis&source=bl&ots=OTz6kp2Jd1&sig=YBH6Ix9C_ZHCsCB8iU0rm9HkO2o&hl=en&ei=_y0QTYS3JMOB8gaZi735DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=sam%20caldwell%20and%20jimmie%20davis&f=false|author=Glen Jeansonne|title=Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta|publisher=[[Baton Rouge]], [[Louisiana]]:[[Louisiana State University Press]], 1975; [[Lafayette]]:University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 1997|ISBN=1-57806-917-3|accessdate=December 20, 2010}}</ref>
In effect, Davis and Caldwell had been city council members elected at-large in the early 1940s, when Shreveport operated under the city commission government, changed in 1978 to the mayor-council format.<ref name=lahist/> Caldwell had urged that the city switch from the city commission to the mayor-council format, a move not undertaken until 1978, long after his death.<ref name=caldwelladm/> After he dispatched Morgan on the theme of "Peace and Harmony," Davis was unopposed in the [[general election]], as was then the political custom in Louisiana. After a twelve-year hiatus, Davis returned to serve a second gubernatorial term from 1960 to 1964<ref name=perez/>but failed in a third-term comeback bid in 1971.
In the campaign, Caldwell argued for state assistance to returning veterans from [[World War II]]. He also stressed his support for states rights through the [[Tenth Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]].<ref name=annacaldwell/>
For further reference, see Jerry Purvis Sanson, "Sam Caldwell's Gubernatorial Campaign" in ''[[North Louisiana History]]'' (1987).<ref>Jerry Purvis Sanson, "Sam Caldwell's Gubernatorial Campaign," ''[[North Louisiana History]],'' Vol. 18, Nos. 2-3 (Spring-Summer 1987), pp. 83-91.</ref>
==Family and death==
In 1914, Caldwell married the former Anna Pauline "Polly" Owen (1894-1966), originally from Delhi in Richland Parish. She was an avid gardener and like her husband an advocate for veterans' issues.<ref name=annacaldwell>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Caldwell&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScnty=1117&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=149598908&df=all&|title=Anna Pauline Owen Caldwell: Late Mayor's Widow Dies; Rites Today|publisher=Findagrave.com|author=John Andrew Prime|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref>
The couple had one child, Betty Ann Caldwell Morgan Burke (1923-2015), whose first husband, John Morgan, died in 1959. She then wed the late Milton Pope Burke. Betty's daughter and the mayor's granddaughter,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=149588590|title=Betty Ann Caldwell Morgan Burke (Sam Caldwell's daughter)|publisher=''The Shreveport Times'' on findagrave.com|date=July 20, 2015|accessdate=July 27, 2015}}</ref> Polly Morgan Decker Griffith (1951-1992), suffered from a mental illness for which experimental drugs were unavailable because they had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=149598715|title=Polly Decker Morgan Griffith (Sam Caldwell's granddaughter)|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref> The Caldwells were members of the First [[Presbyterian]] Church. He was also a member of the Masonic lodge.<ref name=annacaldwell/><ref name=lahist/>
Caldwell died in Shreveport of an unspecified [[lung]] ailment at the age of sixty, almost five months after he had been treated at the [[Mayo Clinic]] in Rochester, [[Minnesota]]. He is interred along with other family members at the Masonic Rest Section of Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport.<ref name=polgr/><ref name=caldwelladm>{{cite web|url= http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/07/26/history-former-mayors-impact-recalled/30707485/|title=Our History: Former mayor’s impact recalled|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=July 26, 2015|author=John Andrew Prime|accessdate=July 27, 2015}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, Sam}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]
| name=Samuel Shepherd "Sam" Caldwell
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=[[Mayor]] of [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
| term_start=1934
| term_end=1946
| preceded=George W. Hardy, Jr.
| succeeded=[[Clyde Fant]]
| birth_date=November 4, 1892
| birth_place=Mooringsport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana
| death_date=August 14, 1953 (aged 60)
| death_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
| occupation=[[Oil]]man
| spouse= Anna Pauline Owen Caldwell (married 1914-1953, his death)
| children=Betty Ann Caldwell Morgan Burke
| religion=[[Presbyterian]]
| alma_mater=[[Louisiana Tech University]]}}
'''Samuel Shepherd Caldwell''', known as '''Sam Caldwell''' (November 4, 1892 – August 14, 1953), was an [[oil]]man who served from 1934 to 1946 as the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[mayor]] of [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]].
==Background==
The son of Samuel A. Caldwell and the former Alice Jeter, Caldwell was born and educated in Mooringsport in Caddo Parish.<ref name=polgr>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/caldwell.html|title=Index to Politicians: Caldwell|publisher=politicalgraveyard.com|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref> He then attended [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]]. For nine years he was employed by Kansas City Southern Railway in the accounting and auditing departments. He worked seven years for Shell Oil Company, part of that tenure as the assistant superintendent of the land department. He was thereafter an independent oil operator affiliated with the Louisiana-Arkansas division of the then Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association.<ref name=annacaldwell/>
==Political life==
From 1932 to 1934, Caldwell served on the Caddo Parish Commission, then known as the police jury, the parish governing body akin to [[county commission]]s in other states.<ref name=polgr/> He was elected to four-year terms as mayor in 1934, 1938, and 1942. In this capacity, he worked to merge the municipal and parish boards of health into one entity and oversaw the stocking of Cross Lake, the city's water supply.<ref name=lahist>{{cite web|url=https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-c/|title=Caldwell, Samuel S.|publisher=[ouisiana Historical Association: ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'' (lahistory.com)|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref><ref>Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, ''History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders'' (1937).</ref>
In the Caldwell administration, the city obtained the former United Service Organization]center in Princess Park, which later housed the Shreveport Regional Arts Council until it was destroyed by [[arson]]. Caldwell set the eight-hour day for city fire and police personnel and lobbied for frequent pay increases for these employees. He worked to obtain $2 million in funding for the city's first low-income housing and established public dental, prenatal, and maternity clinics without increasing taxes to do so. Caldwell was responsible for the municipal acquisition of Querbes Park and established Ford Park, named for former mayor and commissioner [[John McWilliams Ford]].<ref name=caldwelladm/>
When he declined to seek a fourth term in office, Caldwell said that he had "tried sincerely to be a good mayor. I will be just as interested and solicitous of the welfare of the city ... as a private citizen as I have been as mayor."<ref name=caldwelladm/>
===Gubernatorial race===
In 1944, Caldwell campaigned unsuccessfully for [[governor]] against former Shreveport Public Safety Commissioner (a position since abolished) [[Jimmie Davis]]. Caldwell's choice for lieutenant governor was state Senator [[Frank B. Ellis]] of St. Tammany Parish,<ref>''Minden Herald,'' January 14, 1944, p. 5.</ref> who a decade later waged an unsuccessful challenge to [[U.S. Senator]] [[Allen J. Ellender]]. Caldwell received just under thirty thousand votes in the gubernatorial primary. [[Leander Perez]], boss of the Louisiana Delta from Plaquemines Parish, endorsed for governor "either" Caldwell or Lewis Lovering Morgan (1876-1950) of Covington in St. Tammany Parish. At the time, Perez had a personal dislike for Davis and outgoing Governor [[Sam H. Jones]] of [[Lake Charles]], who covertly favored Davis. Morgan was the gubernatorial running mate of former Governor [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]], who was seeking the office of lieutenant governor that year. Others who sought the governorship in 1944 were colorful state Senator [[Dudley J. LeBlanc]] of Abbeville in Vermillion Parish and [[U.S. Representative]] [[James H. Morrison]] of Louisiana's 6th congressional district, a resident of Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish, names widely known across the state at that time. Davis led the balloting and then defeated Morgan in the runoff election.<ref name=perez>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FZgEl830BEcC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=sam+caldwell+and+jimmie+davis&source=bl&ots=OTz6kp2Jd1&sig=YBH6Ix9C_ZHCsCB8iU0rm9HkO2o&hl=en&ei=_y0QTYS3JMOB8gaZi735DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=sam%20caldwell%20and%20jimmie%20davis&f=false|author=Glen Jeansonne|title=Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta|publisher=[[Baton Rouge]], [[Louisiana]]:[[Louisiana State University Press]], 1975; [[Lafayette]]:University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 1997|ISBN=1-57806-917-3|accessdate=December 20, 2010}}</ref>
In effect, Davis and Caldwell had been city council members elected at-large in the early 1940s, when Shreveport operated under the city commission government, changed in 1978 to the mayor-council format.<ref name=lahist/> Caldwell had urged that the city switch from the city commission to the mayor-council format, a move not undertaken until 1978, long after his death.<ref name=caldwelladm/> After he dispatched Morgan on the theme of "Peace and Harmony," Davis was unopposed in the [[general election]], as was then the political custom in Louisiana. After a twelve-year hiatus, Davis returned to serve a second gubernatorial term from 1960 to 1964<ref name=perez/>but failed in a third-term comeback bid in 1971.
In the campaign, Caldwell argued for state assistance to returning veterans from [[World War II]]. He also stressed his support for states rights through the [[Tenth Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]].<ref name=annacaldwell/>
For further reference, see Jerry Purvis Sanson, "Sam Caldwell's Gubernatorial Campaign" in ''[[North Louisiana History]]'' (1987).<ref>Jerry Purvis Sanson, "Sam Caldwell's Gubernatorial Campaign," ''[[North Louisiana History]],'' Vol. 18, Nos. 2-3 (Spring-Summer 1987), pp. 83-91.</ref>
==Family and death==
In 1914, Caldwell married the former Anna Pauline "Polly" Owen (1894-1966), originally from Delhi in Richland Parish. She was an avid gardener and like her husband an advocate for veterans' issues.<ref name=annacaldwell>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Caldwell&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScnty=1117&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=149598908&df=all&|title=Anna Pauline Owen Caldwell: Late Mayor's Widow Dies; Rites Today|publisher=Findagrave.com|author=John Andrew Prime|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref>
The couple had one child, Betty Ann Caldwell Morgan Burke (1923-2015), whose first husband, John Morgan, died in 1959. She then wed the late Milton Pope Burke. Betty's daughter and the mayor's granddaughter,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=149588590|title=Betty Ann Caldwell Morgan Burke (Sam Caldwell's daughter)|publisher=''The Shreveport Times'' on findagrave.com|date=July 20, 2015|accessdate=July 27, 2015}}</ref> Polly Morgan Decker Griffith (1951-1992), suffered from a mental illness for which experimental drugs were unavailable because they had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=149598715|title=Polly Decker Morgan Griffith (Sam Caldwell's granddaughter)|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=January 10, 2020}}</ref> The Caldwells were members of the First [[Presbyterian]] Church. He was also a member of the Masonic lodge.<ref name=annacaldwell/><ref name=lahist/>
Caldwell died in Shreveport of an unspecified [[lung]] ailment at the age of sixty, almost five months after he had been treated at the [[Mayo Clinic]] in Rochester, [[Minnesota]]. He is interred along with other family members at the Masonic Rest Section of Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport.<ref name=polgr/><ref name=caldwelladm>{{cite web|url= http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/07/26/history-former-mayors-impact-recalled/30707485/|title=Our History: Former mayor’s impact recalled|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=July 26, 2015|author=John Andrew Prime|accessdate=July 27, 2015}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, Sam}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]